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World's biggest food firms embroiled in Europe horsemeat scandal

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As one journalist pointed out, German cars have a worldwide reputation for reliability, quality and safety due to well-run companies and strict regulation regarding manufacturing standards. I expect better from the likes of Nestlé.

that journalist just loss some credibility. german cars (bmw, mercedes) are great when they are still within warranty. the day it's out of it is the day things start breaking.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The problem is not about food safety, but about false labelling. The EU is very strict about labelling food, and listing the ingredients.

This is being repeated over and over again by subsequent posters, and it makes no damn sense.

How can you have any sort of assurance of food safety when the product you are consuming is entirely different from the one you you think it is? It's all well and good that, in this particular instance, the horse meat substituted is apparently safe to consume, but what if it hadn't been? How am I supposed to have confidence in a regulatory regime that apparently cannot tell a 100% horse meat product from at 100% beef one?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Point is, the reputation is damaged, no matter how you look at it, that's my point, you can spin it if you want, but for the next foreseeable future, people when they think about horsement will think undoubtedly about the UK. And that's not horse**** either!

We just discovered it first, doesn't make it a British problem, Bass4... British Beef isn't contaminated, it's the garbage being imported and labelled as beef product that's the problem.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Horse is delicious. Now being hoarse about this is just plain silly. If you want to whine about whats in the food supply then annoy your "friends" on facebook with conspiracy posts. Ugh.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Ah_so: "Would vegetarians get so excited if they found that a bit of celery had got into their tomato soup?"

What on earth is with you guys and off-the-wall comparisons today? At least yours connects vegetables (or with fruit, depending on how you view a tomato). I guess you wouldn't feel to bad if the dinner you bought that contains beef is actually dog? Now THAT is a valid comparison. The point is, when you buy beef, you expect beef, not horse. Some people don't mind and even like or love horse, and that's fine so long as it's what they wanted and legal, but in this case they not only did NOT get what was advertised, but the company also mislabeled, and no doubt to cut corners.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

bass4funk: "Just pointing out the typical liberal hypocrisy."

No, you're just pointing out, if anything, how beef, including US cattle, needs more testing -- and you didn't even INTEND to do that; I am just putting a tenuous connection to your completely unrelated comparison. How does rejection of American beef in ANY way have anything to do with horsemeat being mislabeled in Europe?? You simply can't back track on this one, bass.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

This horsemeat story could run and run. Horse meat is even being found in ready-to-eat spaghetti bologneighs. The good news is that even people who got sick from them are now in a stable condition. The big scandal may soon be if traces of zebra meat are found in Tesco barcodes.

Good puns, one and all - thank you for sharing them.

I am not sure what all the fuss is about a miniscule bit of horse meat. Would vegetarians get so excited if they found that a bit of celery had got into their tomato soup?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

i don't understand.. do you die or get poisoned from horse meat? what's the hoohah about?

Megosaa, people in the UK generally won't eat horsemeat. We have an emotional attachment to horses... THAT is why people are so up in arms... that and the mis-labelling. We also won't eat bear, moose, dog, cat, whale... some exotics like Ostrich are gaining in popularity, and you get the "ooh aren't we daring" types who go to weird establishments to eat croc, kangaroo and the like... but by and large people in the UK wouldn't want to eat Black Beauty, Red Rum, Champion or Trigger... horses have been our companions, have taken heroes to war, have been awarded medals... and there was a horse worship culture in ancient times. Why would we want to eat them?

It's partly this, and partly the mis-labelling... I'd say around 50/50 from the people I've spoken to.

I'm just waiting for tests on McDonald's...

3 ( +3 / -0 )

@Bass Let it go. I know the American right love a dig at the Eurotrash, particularly the against the French, but you'll have to find more solid grounds than this. This is an issue of mislabelling, not the safety of beef. See you here if there is a Peugeot recall.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Is not accurately stating the kind of meat inside a box considered "mislabeling" or "lying"?. The easy solution is to buy your own meat and cook for yourself. Don't buy filleted fish...buy the whole thing with the head on. The high priced Sushi people pay for, does not necessarily contain the kind of fish it is advertised to be. Even things like bottled lemon juice can contain large percentages of water, which leads to big profits....the only reason business exists. The bottles of expensive oils also are suspicious; hard to identify the oils by taste.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

How long before we have a 'Soylent Green' type scenario on our hands ?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@smith

And you needed to bring up problems with US beef to talk about horsemeat being mislabeled in the UK? Talk about non-sequiturs!

Just pointing out the typical liberal hypocrisy.

-6 ( +0 / -6 )

Why Romania(n) Horse Meat:

In 2007, as part of efforts to bring Romania in step with European Union law, the country banned horse-drawn carts from main roads in cities and towns. Horse had been intrinsic to Romanian life pulling carts through the streets or working the fields. Following the ban, countless numbers of stray horses have been abandoned. Starving and with nowhere to go, they roam the streets and parks of Romania’s major cities.

Consequently, the emaciated horses are rounded up and if left unclaimed (almost all are), they are sent to slaughterhouses. Abandoned animals aside, poor Romanians are selling their horses to slaughterhouses because they can’t afford to keep them. The monthly income of subsistence farmers in the countryside is less than the costs of feeding a horse for that period. According to an Associated Press report, costs run between €100 ($135) and €150 ($200) to keep a horse every month — up to 40 percent of the average national salary.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaarumugam/2013/02/14/the-romanian-horse-cart-ban-thats-probably-behind-europes-horse-meat-scandal/

2 ( +2 / -0 )

bass4funk: "Point is, the reputation is damaged, no matter how you look at it, that's my point..."

And you needed to bring up problems with US beef to talk about horsemeat being mislabeled in the UK? Talk about non-sequiturs!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

This horsemeat story could run and run. Horse meat is even being found in ready-to-eat spaghetti bologneighs. The good news is that even people who got sick from them are now in a stable condition. The big scandal may soon be if traces of zebra meat are found in Tesco barcodes.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Embroiling beats frying.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Further goes to show that we have practically no idea what we are eating even in packaged food where labeling is required. The situation for restaurants is even more opaque. No labeling required there and few guarantees when the consumer is relying only on his or her easily-deceived sense of taste and smell.

And there is a horse meat industry in Japan. What do you imagine happens to all the unlucky, unfit, untrainable, unsuitable and too old racehorses in the multi-million dollar industry that is Japanese horse racing? Just becomes some tasty "basashi" in Kyushu?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@false

There are a whole lot of thick people in the world, a lot of them.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

@megosaa The problem is not about food safety, rather the false labelling of products. The EU is strict about labelling and listing the contents of products.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

There are no health problems and I'm guessing went on for years, if they liked the taste what was the problem?

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

@megosaa The problem is not about food safety, but about false labelling. The EU is very strict about labelling food, and listing the ingredients.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

@bass4funk

Only if they were thick. the scandal has zero to do with British beef. I have been reading about this in the UK and European media and all blame is put on suppliers and sellers of falsely labelled products.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I always had a nagging feeling about the meat from Brazil...

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

@false and smith

Point is, the reputation is damaged, no matter how you look at it, that's my point, you can spin it if you want, but for the next foreseeable future, people when they think about horsement will think undoubtedly about the UK. And that's not horse**** either!

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

i don't understand.. do you die or get poisoned from horse meat? what's the hoohah about?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

bass4funk: "This goes to show you to all the haters that would talk crap about US beef saying its unsafe and shouldn't be eaten, now all these Europeans can't say anything, while I think this is a very sad thing, before commenting and generalizing, they should be careful and look in their own backyard before throwing boulders."

What, it goes to show you two terrible and utterly unrelated wrongs make a right? If anything it goes to show you all beef and beef products need to be tested more thoroughly, which I'm guessing was not your point.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

@Bass4funk

This problem is not from the UK it is non UK places putting the horse meat into the food supply. This has to do with the suppliers and has nothing to do with the safety of beef most of which is these processed foods in Europe are from South America anyway. The similarity with the problems of US meat containing hormones is simply not there.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

The last thread I read on this turned into a debate on the joys of horse meat and ended up with pretentious recipe swapping. If I want horse, I'll buy it. If I buy something labelled as beef, I don't expect horse, deer, kangaroo, ostrich or whatever. This is a question of lies, corporate greed and poor regulation. As one journalist pointed out, German cars have a worldwide reputation for reliability, quality and safety due to well-run companies and strict regulation regarding manufacturing standards. I expect better from the likes of Nestlé.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

@false

You have either intentionally or by mistake got the wrong end of the stick here. The problem has nothing to do with the safety of beef in the EU. This is about horse meat being illegally labelled as beef in cheap processed products. People buying joints of beef can be assured that they are not buying joints of horse meat.

Neither, I'm just stating that everyone wants to generalize an entire industry of a lot of false claims and over exaggerated. Now you are seeing the same happening in the UK. It's about now how people will stereotype for a long time to come that either the UK still had problems with its beef industry and transparency. That's my point I'm clearly talking about the end result. And this will take a long time to erase this image from the publics mind.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

SuperLib, they are saying that it could be a result of a law banning horses on Romanian public roads, horses have been shipped to slaughterhouses ...

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Is horse meat cheaper or something? I no no clue about things like this.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Horse meat is Delicious ...Japan even has a horse meat Ice cream type product. that is quite popular. I wish I could by horse meat in my local US supermarket or even from a meat processor. Horse taste very much like Moose meat,it is nice and lean and has more protein per ounce than beef.horse is a far superior food product to beef.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

There is horsemeat in some stuff like corned beef, or there used to be anyway. Horsemeat is not cheap in Japan and would be unlikely to be thought of as a cheap substitute for beef in processed foods.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

One wonders what the situation is in Japan where no horse meat has been discovered in processed food. Is there any testing here? Is there really no horsemeat in supermarket beef products here?

If it is discovered, it will probably be used as an excuse to ban an excessively wide range of imported products.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Just take some time to prepare food. And if it is cheap food that you buy then it has to be asked why it is so cheap,,,,,,,,,

2 ( +3 / -1 )

@bass4funk

You have either intentionally or by mistake got the wrong end of the stick here. The problem has nothing to do with the safety of beef in the EU. This is about horse meat being illegally labelled as beef in cheap processed products. People buying joints of beef can be assured that they are not buying joints of horse meat.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

The usual corporate greed.....as long as they could get away with it, they'd do it.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

This goes to show you to all the haters that would talk crap about US beef saying its unsafe and shouldn't be eaten, now all these Europeans can't say anything, while I think this is a very sad thing, before commenting and generalizing, they should be careful and look in their own backyard before throwing boulders. Not wallowing, but it just goes to show you, there is NO country that can claim they are above scrutiny. These kind of things can happen anywhere and no country is immune OR superior when it comes to quality control. Too bad this happened.

-6 ( +5 / -11 )

It's amusing to watch them all panic to pass the buck.

European companies: It's Brazil's fault!

Brazilian company: We're not buying any more meat from Europe!

All of these companies are to blame for allowing it. The tests that have revealed the horsemeat in their products could have been done ANY time to ensure said meat was not there, but as usual such tests have been held off until people are more or less caught red-handed.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

This kind of rumor has been about for years, mixing horse meat, so no surprise here!

3 ( +3 / -0 )

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